Photo: Indian F4
Aqil Alibhai was victorious in all three Indian Formula 4 races at Kari Motor Speedway to grow his points lead.
On October 1 it was announced that Kari would host the season finale as well as round four, which took place last weekend, meaning the calendar reached completion five months after the first edition was issued.
Alibhai set the pace in practice on Saturday morning, a 1m06.952s putting him on top by 0.428 seconds in the 25-minute session.
Canadian debutant Hady-Noah Mimassi was second fastest, Ruhaan Alva was 0.048s further behind in third and seven other drivers were within a second of the pace.
Alva moved to the top in the first 10-minute qaulifying session, pipping Alibhai to pole by 0.015s with a 1m06.622s lap. Mimassi and Jaden Pariat were split by 0.01s and both 0.3s off pole, and Divy Nandan was fifth fastest.
There were more pace gains in Q2, and a 1m06.458s put Alibhai on race three pole by 0.192s over Alva. Pariat and Mimassi trailed by 0.248s and 0.364s, and the Alpine Formula 1 team-supported Aiva Anagnostiadis was 0.427s slower than Alibhai in fifth.
The day concluded with even more close margins in race one, as Alibhai prevailed by just 0.146s. Pariat was a further 0.172s back, and Mimassi finished his first race in fourth. The karting graduate has been testing F4 machinery since April, primarily in Britain but also in France after entering the FEED Racing France shootout.
Alibhai had a bigger advantage over his opposition on Sunday, winning race two by two seconds and race three, a lights-to-flag success, by 9.3s. Pariat and Alva completed the podium again, with Pariat ahead in race two and Alva the runner-up in race three. Both go into the season finale next month in contention to beat Alibhai to the title.
Results round-up
Race 1 (21 laps)
1 Aqil Alibhai 27m57.050s
2 Ruhaan Alva +0.146s
3 Jaden Pariat +0.318s
4 Hady-Noah Mimassi +1.608s
5 Abhay Mohan +2.174s
6 Divy Nandan +2.500s
7 Veer Sheth +2.850s
8 Saishiva Sankaran +3.717s
9 Tristan Rajakoski +3.930s
10 Arjun Chheda +5.186s
Pole: Alva, 1m06.622s
Fastest lap: Alibhai, 1m06.767s
Race 2 (20 laps)
1 Alibhai 26m16.904s
2 Pariat +2.087s
3 Alva +3.092s
4 Chheda +5.403s
5 Nandan +6.026s
6 Isaac Demellweek +6.351s
7 Zakariya Mohammed +7.929s
8 Raiden Samervel +8.070s
9 Sheth +11.125s
10 Mohan +13.281s
FL: Alibahi, 1m06.693s
Race 3 (24 laps)
1 Alibhai 26m54.554s
2 Alva +9.388s
3 Pariat +14.552s
4 Mimassi +32.194s
5 Nandan +32.296s
6 Samervel +36.992s
7 Sheth +38.206s
8 Mohammed +1m04.266s
9 Sankaran +1m05.930s
10 Giancarlo Artho +1m07.341s
P: Alibhai, 1m06.458s
FL: Alibhai, 1m06.615s
Championship standings
1 Alibhai 209 2 Alva 184 3 Pariat 159 4 Hugh Barter 95 5 Demellweek 89 6 Nandan 85 7 Mohan 82 8 Sheth 81 9 Anagnostiadis 29 10 Mimassi 24